Clara’s Verdict
I have been recommending The Extremely Embarrassing Life of Lottie Brooks since it first came out in 2021, and I am delighted to have reason to revisit it now that the audio edition is established and the series has clearly found its audience. Katie Kirby is the creator of the Hurrah for Gin blog and books, aimed squarely at exhausted parents rather than their children, and the leap to children’s fiction is surprisingly organic. Lottie is, in the best possible sense, her mother’s daughter: self-aware about her own ridiculousness, genuinely funny rather than just trying to be, and capable of the kind of mortified introspection that makes children feel seen in ways that more reassuring fiction sometimes does not manage.
Eleven and three quarters, flat-chested, about to start secondary school without a single friend who is going with her. That is the setup. The ambition is simply to survive it. Most children that age will find this premise so specific it feels as though it was written for them personally, which is the highest ambition of middle-grade fiction and the quality that transforms a book from something children finish into something they want to own and reread and press into the hands of their friends.
The audio format is particularly well-suited to this material. Lottie’s interior voice, which runs at a comic frequency that is both ten-years-old and somehow also ageless, benefits enormously from a narrator who has genuinely understood it rather than simply read it. Charlie Sanderson has understood it completely, and her performance is the version of this story that I would recommend to any family approaching it for the first time.
About the Audiobook
Published by Penguin Audio in March 2021, The Extremely Embarrassing Life of Lottie Brooks is the first book in what has become a popular series for the 9-12 age group. Lottie faces the opening weeks of secondary school without her friends from primary, without a bra, a disaster of the first magnitude in her assessment, and with two hamsters named Sir Barnaby Squeakington and Fuzzball the Third as her primary confidants.
The comedy is situational, relational, and pitched at exactly the right level for the target age group: old enough to find mortification funny rather than simply painful, young enough to still care enormously about social hierarchies and the specific shame of not having the right things. Kirby writes with genuine warmth underneath the comedy. Lottie is not simply a vehicle for embarrassing scenarios. She is a person navigating something genuinely difficult, and the book takes her seriously even while laughing with her.
The illustrated component of the print edition is partially lost in audio, but the story is strong enough to carry itself without the visual element. The diary-format interior voice that drives the book translates naturally to audio listening, and the narrative momentum actually benefits from the unbroken quality of listening rather than reading: there is no flipping back to re-examine an illustration, just the forward movement of Lottie’s increasingly chaotic week.
The series, which has continued well beyond this opening volume, has maintained the quality and the core voice that makes the first book work. For listeners who enjoy this one, there is considerably more to come, and the world expands in ways that reward continued investment without losing the intimate, diary-format quality that made the original effective. Starting with Book 1 is essential: the pleasure of returning to a familiar voice across multiple volumes is one of the particular joys of audio series for children, and it is built on the foundation established here.
The Narration
Charlie Sanderson’s performance is the audio edition’s strongest asset. She has exactly the register this material requires: genuine comedic timing, a voice that convincingly inhabits an eleven-year-old’s particular blend of drama and self-consciousness, and the ability to differentiate between Lottie’s various disasters in ways that give each its proper weight. For a series this reliant on Lottie’s interior voice, the narrator is load-bearing, and Sanderson carries it with obvious affection for the character. Children who are resistant to audiobooks will often come around when the narrator is this well cast, and Sanderson is well cast in a way that is immediately apparent from the first few minutes.
What Readers Say
With a 4.7 rating from four Audible UK reviews, the response reflects real reader enthusiasm. One parent described this as the first book their nine-year-old had ever willingly sat and read, and reported that she now owns the entire series. That transformation from reluctant reader to committed series reader is the best outcome children’s fiction can produce. Another reviewer, writing as a parent, reported that his daughters found it very funny and well-received by the actual target audience. A third praised it as very relatable and funny and addictive for eleven-year-olds. The consensus across different ages and different perspectives is consistent, which is a reliable indicator of quality rather than a particular readership’s enthusiasm.
Who Should Listen?
This is aimed at children aged nine to twelve, with particular resonance for those approaching or in the first year of secondary school. It works best for children who enjoy diary-format or first-person comic fiction, in the tradition of Wimpy Kid but with a British secondary school setting and a distinctly female voice. The audio format is a strong choice for reluctant readers or for shared listening on car journeys, where Sanderson’s performance gives adults something to enjoy rather than simply endure. Start with Book 1 before moving through the series. Listen on Audible UK
